Monday Morning Minibeasts!
Good morning and welcome to a new week of learning – this week we are thinking of very tiny creatures, with a focus on minibeasts. The ‘picture of the day’ this week will be a selection of tiny things, but might also include things to make us smile or pictures to help with our phonics – a mixture of pictures.
Picture of the day: Start the week by talking about this picture with someone at home. As before, try to write a sentence about the picture and think back to suggestions for sentence starters: The……. I can see……. I think…… I like……. Use your sound board for making sure tricky words are written correctly and to help you when you are sounding out each word. When you need to write a long word, sound it out carefully – you can do it!
Phonics: Here is the next Letters and Sounds video lesson (Phase 3). If you would like to try the Phase 4 actvities, they are below the video link.
Phase 4 Challenge: Letter Blends.
We have been finding out about words with blends at the end. This week we will start thinking about words with blends at the beginning. This continues in phase 4 of our phonics journey. To help us with this, why not re-watch the Alphablocks guide: https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/the-alphablocks-guide-to-phonics
It explains that we will be learning about letters that blend together but don’t make a new sound (unlike sh which is a digraph and makes a new sound). Blends can be at the beginning or the end of a word. Remember to scroll down to the green section – Letter Blends. Listen out for words with Letter Blends at the beginning of them.
When sounding out and writing words from this phase, it is helpful to use a phoneme frame to make sure you hear all sounds in the words. A simple frame can be drawn like this one below. Each sound goes in its own box in the frame. The children are familiar with using this. Here are 2 examples.
s |
t |
o |
p |
s |
t |
ar |
t |
The letter blends (s t) are at the beginning. You still say each sound as you point to sound out the word.
Try to sound out and write these words at home:
stop step start stick stem
Reading: Try out this comic which will help us to read words with letter blends at the start (CCVC) words.
https://phonicsplaycomics.co.uk/comic_ph4_stunt_quest.html
Maths: I am very excited that the White Rose Maths activities this week are based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar. You will come across patterns, counting and measuring. Follow the link and click on Day 1.
https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/early-years/
Story of the week: The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle). Here is a link to a short animation of the story.
Other Activities
Drawing Challenge: A fun thing to do is to change the paper you give your child for drawing. Here are two ideas of what you could do:
- Give them tiny pieces of paper to draw on – this could be small pieces of card or paper.
- Give them a piece of paper or card with 2 googly eyes already on there (either eyes you can stick on or draw them). See what they can create around the eyes.
Getting Outside: Can you collect tiny treasures outside (you could take a yoghurt pot to collect them in) then use them to make your name? You could stick it to card/paper or just put them on a patio/stone outside.
Getting Outside: You could also use your treasures to set up an outdoor cafe! Use a tea set if you have one or yoghurt pots/tubs are just as good.
Have a good day. If you need any other ideas, or if you are not able to get outside, don’t forget about Out of the Ark daily songs and activities.